It’s Time for All of Us to Divest

You may be profiting financially from the war in Gaza. It's easier than you think to change that

Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY 4.0)Tents at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Brown University, 2024.

by Scott Plous
July 29, 2024

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired at least 3,000 rockets into Israel and ordered thousands of men to breach Israel’s borders in a surprise attack. The immediate result is now well-known: the death of roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping of approximately 240 hostages.

What’s less well known is that defense industry stocks soared after the attack, adding $23 billion in market capitalization by October 9 and making quite a bit of money for shareholders—including U.S. colleges and universities with investments in companies that have supplied Israel with weapons, some of which have allegedly been used to commit war crimes documented by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In response to the escalating death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, thousands of student protesters around the world have joined in expressing a common message: We do not want our school to support or profit financially from this war. Instead, they’ve called on their schools to divest any holdings in companies supporting the war or occupation.

As I’ve written elsewhere, this call makes sense—not because divestment will end the war or put companies out of business, but because the call successfully draws attention to humanitarian concerns, and because it's aligned with the values that schools typically teach, including respect for the law, human rights, social justice, and the exercise of free speech.

But if it’s wrong for schools to profit financially from the war in Gaza, it’s also wrong for individuals to profit from it. Unfortunately, many people do exactly that without realizing it. For instance, employees and retirees often have retirement accounts with mutual funds that include stock in companies such as Boeing, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin, all of which make weapons used in Gaza.

If you would like to divest from military contractors that may be involved in war crimes, the safest way to do so is by asking your employer, financial planner, or tax adviser what environmental, social, and governance (ESG) alternatives are available, and then assess the pros and cons of each option in light of your retirement goals. In my case, I have a few different retirement accounts, each containing mutual funds, so I simply changed my fund choices from traditional mutual funds to ESG mutual funds.

I began this act of personal divestment by moving an individual retirement account (IRA) and a Roth IRA from the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (my original choice, ticker code VFIAX) to Vanguard’s Social Index Fund (VFTAX), which has a comparable annual return.

To make the switch, I just called Vanguard customer service and requested the change. Ten minutes later, I was done.

I did much the same thing with some employer-backed retirement accounts, but because this company didn’t offer the specific ESG fund I wanted, a customer service representative had me open "brokerage windows" to convert those accounts (a slightly cumbersome process, but not difficult).

None of these changes incurred fees or taxes. I should also add that it’s easy to convert non-retirement mutual funds to ESG mutual funds, but non-retirement conversions may trigger capital gains taxes.

When choosing ESG mutual funds, one tool I found especially useful was the website WeaponFreeFunds.org, which hosts a searchable database that scores thousands of mutual funds, shows the performance of each fund, and provides information on hundreds of military contractors so that investors can avoid mutual funds that hold stock in companies of concern. The website also lists top-scoring mutual funds, and it provides scores on several other ESG criteria, such as fossil fuels, gender equality, and guns (one benefit of ESG funds is that they tend to be relatively climate-friendly).

To illustrate, the website gave my original Vanguard 500 Index fund a grade of D because 3.13 percent ($9.16 billion) of the fund is invested in twenty military contractors that make cluster munitions, landmines, white phosphorus, nuclear arms, and many of the weapons used in Gaza. In contrast, Vanguard’s ESG Social Index Fund received a grade of A because none of its investments include companies that make weapons.

An article in The Lancet recently estimated that the direct and indirect death toll of the war in Gaza stands at around 186,000 lives—about 8 percent of the total population of Gaza. Put another way, a United Nations Development Program report said the conflict has already reduced average life expectancy in occupied Palestinian territory by seven years.

If you regard the idea of profiting from this tragedy as unbearable, I hope you’ll consider divesting any holdings you have in the companies fueling it. And for readers who don’t have retirement or investment accounts, I hope you'll share this commentary with those who do. The time has come to divest.

This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service

Scott Plous is professor of psychology at Wesleyan University and founding executive director of Social Psychology Network, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of peace, social justice and sustainable living.Read more by Scott Plous

PARIS OLYMPIC OPENING

Tempest in a Teapot

Homophobes are freaking out over the drag queen “The Last Supper” and it’s glorious

By Mira Lazine
July 29, 2024



People have been furious over an allegedly queer interpretation of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper featured at the Olympics, and it’s delightful.


At the Opening Ceremony, a group of drag queens are seen posing in front of a dinner table, allegedly parodying The Last Supper. However, the official Olympics X account disputes this, saying that they’re actually parodying The Feast of Dionysus.



Culture, unfilteredTwice a week, our newsletter will bring you the pulse of queer culture, from the tastemakers to the groundbreakers.





Disgraced transphobic comedian Rob Schneider said, “I am sorry to say to ALL the world’s GREATEST ATHLETES, I wish you ALL THE BEST, but I cannot watch an Olympics that disrespects Christianity and openly celebrates Satan.”

Additionally, he falsely claimed that a drag queen had their genitals out for children to see.

Guys with their genitalia hanging out in front of children?! Drag Queens?!
I wasn’t sure if I was watching the @Olympics or if I was watching a school board meeting… pic.twitter.com/JpRw4UPqDA— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) July 28, 2024

Hallmark actress Candace Cameron Bure also spoke out on social media in a lengthy seven minute rant that was posted on Instagram. A user posted it on X, and some highlights include her saying, “[To] see the Opening Ceremony completely blaspheme and mock the Christian faith with their interpretation of the Last Supper was disgusting. It made me so sad.”



“Someone said, ‘You shouldn’t be sad, you should be mad about it.’ Trust me, it makes me mad, but I’m more sad because I’m sad for souls.”

She also then encouraged people to not watch the Games.

Jillian Michaels also chimed in, going on in a lengthy X post where she talks about the event being hypocritical and having a lack of understanding.


Any other has-beens want to chime in on this non-controversy? Dave Chappelle? Caitlyn Jenner? Hawk Tuah girl? The floor is yours!

Catholics, Vatican officials react to controversial Olympic ceremony

LGBTQ+ performers posed for what some Christians believe was a mock representation of the Last Supper.

This scene during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, Friday, July 26, 2024, was meant to represent the Greek gods during a banquet, according to organizers. (Video screen grab)

July 29, 2024
By Claire Giangravé


VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Catholic leaders along with a host of other Christian groups voiced outrage following the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris (July 26) over a scene starring drag performers and French entertainers that many interpreted as a parody of Jesus’ Last Supper.

Organizers have since apologized for the ceremony, while the creative director of the controversial scene, Thomas Jolly, said the Last Supper was not among his inspirations and that it was meant to represent the Greek gods during a banquet.

The tableau featured artists in drag, representing diverse cultural backgrounds, posed behind a long dining table while a woman wearing an ornate silver halo stood in the middle. Singer and actor Philippe Katerine emerged painted blue on a silver platter and adorned with grapes.

Over the weekend, before Jolly’s clarification, social media was rife with arguments over whether the scene was meant to invoke paintings of the Greek gods gathered at Mount Olympus — such as the 1636 painting “The Feast of the Gods” by Dutch artist Jan van Bijlert or the painting “Feast of the Gods” by Johann Rottenhammer and Jan Brueghel, circa 1600 — or if its true similarity was to Leonardo DaVinci’s famous artistic depiction of Jesus’ Last Supper.

Many Christians worldwide, including Vatican officials, saw the latter and took offense.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, one of the Vatican’s top advisers in investigating sexual abuse cases, wrote on X that he had contacted the Maltese embassies to France to express the “distress & the disappointment of many Christians at the gratuitous insult to the Eucharist during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.”

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the Vatican think-tank on human life and society, also commented on the “derision and the ridicule of the last supper” during the Olympic ceremony on X. “It reveals a profound question: everyone, truly everyone, wants to sit at that table where Jesus gave his life for all and taught love,” he wrote.

The French bishops were among the first to push back against the “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity” in a statement on Saturday (July 27). “We think of all Christians worldwide who were hurt by the excess and provocation of certain scenes,” they wrote, adding that they hope faithful will see beyond “the ideological biases of a few artists.”

Speaking to OSV News, the special Holy See representative to the 2024 Olympic games, Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard, said he was “deeply hurt” by the images of the opening ceremony. “It is contrary to the Olympic Charter, to the dimension of unity that is present in its values, to the idea of bringing everyone together, without political and religious demonstrations,” he said.

The news outlet of the Italian bishops, Avvenire, commented on the ceremony in several articles and editorials. “Exaggeration excludes,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Luciano Moia, commenting on the scenes on display at the ceremony.

The Middle East Council of Churches, which includes the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, issued a statement “with a lot of love mixed with astonishment and disapproval,” asking the Olympic organizers to commit to its values of respect and friendship.

“Freedom, diversity, and creativity are not compatible with insulting the beliefs of others, nor with mocking them, in ways that have nothing to do with human equality,” the statement read.

RELATED: As Olympics get underway, French Catholics hold prayer vigil for athletes

Many Catholic bishops in the United States pushed back against the controversial representation at the Olympics. Bishop Robert Barron commented in a social media post on the “gross, flippant mockery” in France, a country once described as “the eldest daughter of the church.”

“We Christians, we Catholics, should not be sheepish, we should resist,” Barron, who leads an influential Catholic communications organization, said in the post.

A number of prominent American evangelicals also reacted with outrage over the scene, including Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who called it “a pornographic corruption of Christianity” on X and said “Paris aspires to be the new Babylon, with a drag queen at the center behind the altar.”

Former Olympian and trans woman Caitlyn Jenner said that “as an Olympian and a Christian,” she was outraged and called the scene “a disgusting display of mockery of one of the most Holy and Sacred images of our Christian faith, by the least tolerant demographic in the world, the Radical Rainbow Mafia! SHAMEFUL!

The chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis urged believers to fast and pray in preparation for the events in Paris.

The organizers of the Paris 2024 games apologized on Sunday, stating that “clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group” and that the goal was instead to “celebrate community tolerance.”

“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry,” the statement added.

‘The Last Supper’ Olympics controversy and the temptation of outrage

Zac Davis

July 29, 2024
AMERICA

THE JESUIT REVIEW

Floriane Issert, a Gendarmerie non-commissioned officer of the National Gendarmerie, rides on a horse while leading volunteers carrying flags of Olympic teams on the Iena Bridge in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

I must have missed it live, but when I saw in my social media feed the supposed “Last Supper” display at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, I shrugged, had some vague thoughts about Frenchness and cringe attempts at being avant garde, but I kept scrolling and moved on with my evening.

Turns out, I should have been outraged—so moved at the mocking of my religion that I should have posted about it, prayed and fasted in reparation for the blasphemy, and probably posted about that fasting for good measure.

The church came together, from different ends of both the world and the ideological spectrum, to condemn what they saw as the mocking of an image sacred to Christians for hundreds of years.

The organizers issued an apology, but clarified that they did not intend to depict the Last Supper, but the Greek god Dionysus. Still, the parallels to the Last Supper were hard to miss. But I’m not interested in going down a Da Vinci Coded rabbit hole about whether it was Jesus or Dionysus, whether the organizers or actors intended the parallels, or even asking what specifically people found offensive about the display.

The truth is, I just don’t care all that much about being insulted. I don’t think you should care that much. And I don’t think Jesus cares all that much, either!

But I do care about how we respond. And I think this moment lays out the possibilities of, and problems with, with the church’s approach to evangelization in the 21st century.

From one vantage point, the church is under attack. From this perspective, in an increasingly secular West, our values, lifestyles, beliefs are under attack. The world treats us with contempt. Our religious freedom is threatened. (Don’t worry about paying too much attention to those places where it is severely restricted.) The church is losing power, and we need to do something about it. We need to defend our God and our church.

This point of view is captured succinctly by Elon Musk, who posted on X the night of the opening ceremony: “Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and right, Christianity will perish.” Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester commented on Musk’s post, saying: “My mentor Cardinal Francis George remarked that the Christian faith can be lost in a single generation, if Christians aren’t vigilant.

I have become increasingly convinced that this defensive posture is a more effective recruitment message for populist politicians than it is for evangelization.

Here’s the thing: In the United States and Europe, it’s true that the world is more secular. I grant that premise. But I don’t think we’ve developed an effective response to that situation.

Pope Francis described this in “Evangelii Gaudium.” “In some places a spiritual ‘desertification’ has evidently come about, as the result of attempts by some societies to build without God or to eliminate their Christian roots.” But he also encourages us, quoting Pope Benedict, to respond to this new terrain not with contempt or righteous defense, but with joy and hope:
“In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, by the example of their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive”. In these situations we are called to be living sources of water from which others can drink. At times, this becomes a heavy cross, but it was from the cross, from his pierced side, that our Lord gave himself to us as a source of living water. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of hope!

The Olympics surely are not without their own set of problems, but the unbridled joy and excitement that billions around the world feel watching the world come together for sports is a moment of cooperation and togetherness that the United Nations could only dream of.

Indeed, Pope Francis posted on X the day the Olympics started, “The authentic Olympic and Paralympic spirit is an antidote against the tragedy of war and a way to put an end to violence. May sport build bridges, break down barriers, and foster peaceful relations.” For a pope who has made it a priority of his pontificate to remind the world that we are “brothers and sisters, all,” the Olympics are an event where the world is more ready than ever to listen to that message.

I am only a casual Olympics viewer at best (I am cheering as loud as I can for LeBron James to lead the U.S. Men’s Basketball team to another gold). And even I managed to find several moments of consolation in the opening ceremony: Celine Dion delivering an incredible comeback performance after suffering a debilitating medical diagnosis; Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi losing his wedding ring in the Seine and posting a beautiful apology to his wife; 100-year-old French Olympian, Charles Coste, helping with the final Olympic torch relay.

People are ready to be moved when they turn on the Olympics—feel-good stories abound! If you seek it out, you will find the church there, ready to offer the Good News.

But there are loud voices drowning out all of that with outrage. Instead of inviting people in, I fear most people will come away from the Olympics viewing us as the church who cried persecution.

Zac Davis is an associate editor and the senior director for digital strategy for America. He also co-hosts the podcast, Jesuitical.
@zacdayviszdavis@americamedia.org

Apache Christ icon controversy sparks debate over Indigenous Catholic faith practices

For this close-knit community, the 8-foot Apache Christ painting is a reminder of the holy union of their culture and faith.

July 29, 2024
By Deepa Bharath


MESCALERO, New Mexico (AP) — Anne Marie Brillante never imagined she would have to choose between being Apache and being Catholic.

To her, and many others in the Mescalero Apache tribe in New Mexico who are members of St. Joseph Apache Mission, their Indigenous culture had always been intertwined with faith. Both are sacred.

“Hearing we had to choose, that was a shock,” said a tearful Brillante, a member of the mission’s parish council.

The focus of this tense, unresolved episode is the 8-foot Apache Christ painting. For this close-knit community, it is a revered icon created by Franciscan friar Robert Lentz in 1989. It depicts Christ as a Mescalero medicine man, and has hung behind the church’s altar for 35 years under a crucifix as a reminder of the holy union of their culture and faith.

On June 26, the church’s then-priest, Peter Chudy Sixtus Simeon-Aguinam, removed the icon and a smaller painting depicting a sacred Indigenous dancer. Also taken were ceramic chalices and baskets given by the Pueblo community for use during the Eucharist.

Brillante said the priest took them away while the region was reeling from wildfires that claimed two lives and burned more than 1,000 homes.

The Diocese of Las Cruces, which oversees the mission, did not respond to several emails, phone calls and an in-person visit by The Associated Press.

Parishioners, shocked to see the blank wall behind the altar when they arrived for Catechism class, initially believed the art objects had been stolen. But Brillante was informed by a diocesan official that the icon’s removal occurred under the authority of Bishop Peter Baldacchino and in the presence of a diocesan risk manager.

The diocese has returned the icons and other objects after the community’s outrage was covered by various media outlets, and the bishop replaced Simeon-Aguinam with another priest. But Brillante and others say it’s insufficient to heal the spiritual abuse they have endured.

Brillante said their former priest opened old wounds with his recent actions, suggesting he sought to cleanse them of their “pagan” ways, and it has derailed the reconciliation process initiated by Pope Francis in 2022. That year, Francis gave a historic apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Indigenous residential schools, forcing Native people to assimilate into Christian society, destroying their cultures and separating families.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declined comment on the Mescalero case. But last month, the conference overwhelmingly approved a pastoral framework for Indigenous ministry, which pointed to a “false choice” many Indigenous Catholics are faced with — to be Indigenous or Catholic:

“We assure you, as the Catholic bishops of the United States, that you do not have to be one or the other. You are both.”

Several of the mission’s former priests understood this, but Brillante believes Simeon-Aguinam’s recent demand to make that “false choice” violated the bishops’ new guidelines.

Larry Gosselin, a Franciscan who served St. Joseph from 1984 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2003, said he sought the approval of 15 Mescalero leaders before Lentz began the painting that took three months to complete.

“He poured all of himself into that painting,” said Gosselin, explaining that Lentz sprinkled gold dust on himself and skipped showering, using his body oils to adhere the gold to the canvas. Then he gave the painting to the humble church.

Albert Braun, the priest who helped construct the church building in the 1920s, respected Mescalero Apache traditions in his ministry and was so beloved that he is buried inside the church, near the altar.

Church elders Glenda and Larry Brusuelas said to right this wrong and to repair this damage, the bishop must issue a public apology.

“You don’t call or send a letter,” Larry Brusuelas said. “You face the people you have offended and offer some guarantee that this is not going to happen again. That’s the Apache way.”

While Bishop Baldacchino held a two-hour meeting with the parish council in Mescalero after the items were returned, Brillante said he seemed more concerned about the icon being “hastily” reinstalled rather than acknowledging the harm or offering an apology.

Still, some are hopeful. Parish council member Pamela Cordova, said she views the bishop appointing a new priest who was more familiar with the Apache community as a positive step.

“We need to give the bishop a chance to prove himself and let us know he is sincere and wants to make things right,” she said.

The concept of “inculturation,” the notion of people expressing their faith through their culture, has been encouraged by the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, said Chris Vecsey, professor of religion and Native American studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

“It’s rather shocking to see a priest who has been assigned a parish with Native people acting in such a disrespectful way in 2024,” he said. “But it does reflect a long history of concern that blending these symbols might weaken, threaten or pollute the purity of the faith.”

Deacon Steven Morello, the Archdiocese of Detroit’s missionary to the American Indians, said the goal of the U.S. bishops’ new framework is to correct the ills of the past. He said Indigenous spirituality and Catholic faith have much in common, such as the burning of sage in Native American ceremonies and incense in a Catholic church.

“Both are meant to cleanse the heart and mind of all distractions,” he said. “The smoke goes up to God.”

Morello said Pope Francis’ encyclical on caring for the Earth and the environment titled “Laudato Si” addresses the sacredness of all creation — a core principle Indigenous people have lived by for millennia.

“There is no conflict, only commonality, between Indigenous and Catholic spirituality,” he said.

There are over 340 Native American parishes in the United States and many use Indigenous symbols and sacred objects in church. In every corner of the Mescalero church, Apache motifs seamlessly blend in with Catholic imagery.

The Apache Christ painting hangs as the focal point of the century-old Romanesque church whose rock walls soar as high as 90 feet. Artwork of teepees adorns the lectern. A mural at the altar shows the Last Supper with Christ and his apostles depicted as Apache men. Tall crowns worn by mountain dancers known as “gahe” in Apache, hang over small paintings showing Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

For parishioner Sarah Kazhe, the Apache Christ painting conveys how Jesus appears to the people of Mescalero.

“Jesus meets you where you are and he appears to us in a way we understand,” she said. “Living my Apache way of life is no different than attending church. … The mindless, thoughtless act of removing a sacred icon sent a message that we didn’t matter.”

Parishioners believe the Creator in Apache lore is the same as their Christian God. On a recent Saturday night, community members gathered to bless two girls who had come of age. Kazhe and Donalyn Torres, one of the church elders who authorized Lentz to paint the Apache Christ, sat in lawn chairs with more than 100 others, watching crown dancers bring blessings on them.

Under a half-moon, the men wore body paint and tall crowns, dancing to drumbeats and song around a large fire. The women, including the two girls donning buckskin and jewelry, formed the outer circle, moving their feet in a quick, shuffling motion.

In the morning, many from the group attended Mass at their church, the Apache Christ restored to its place of honor.

The painting shows Christ as a Mescalero holy man, standing on the sacred Sierra Blanca, greeting the sun. A sun symbol is painted on his left palm; he holds a deer hoof rattle in his right hand. The inscription at the bottom is Apache for “giver of life,” one of their names for the Creator. Greek letters in the upper corners are abbreviations for “Jesus Christ.”

Gosselin, the mission’s former priest, said he was struck by the level of detail Lentz captured in that painting, particularly the eyes — which focus on a distance just as Apache people would when talking about spirituality. He believes the painting was “divinely inspired” because the people who received it feel a holy connection.

“This has resonated in the spirit and their hearts,” he said. “Now, 35 years later, the Apache people are fighting for it.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Public Wants Indigenous Knowledge to Manage Bears Ears National Monument

Yahoo News

Bears Ears National Monument

 (Photo/US Bureau of Land Management/WikiCommons)

By Elyse Wild 

 July 11, 2024

The public comment period for the cooperative management plan for Bears Ears National Monument ended on June 11 and is currently under review, the Bears Ears Commission announced yesterday.

The plan is the first-ever tribally informed cooperative management plan for a national monument

The Commission — made up of five sovereign Tribes — along with the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are now reviewing the public comments into the final management plan for the National Monument.

There are 133 National Monuments in the United States, each afforded permanent protection by Congress or the President. Many protect sites of historic or cultural significance to Native American tribes.

Located in southeastern Utah and just north of the Navajo Nation, the Bears Ears National Monument was declared in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama. It encompasses 2,112 square miles surrounding two buttes resembling bear ears rising from the desert floor. President Trump reduced the monument area by 85% in 2017. It was eventually restored by President Biden in 2021. According to the Commission, the Monument holds more than 100,000 sacred Native American archeological and cultural sites.

Approximately 20,000 individuals participated in the public comment period, providing feedback on the draft Resource Management Plan. Tribal experts, including elected and cultural leaders, participated in 18 full-day and multi-day planning meetings between July 2022 and March 2024 to inform the creation of the draft.

The public comments overwhelmingly supported the use of traditional Indigenous knowledge in managing the Monument.

“I am deeply moved by the overwhelming support I saw for Tribal stewardship in managing Bears Ears,” Malcolm Lehi, White Mesa Council Representative and Bears Ears Commissioner for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said in a statement.

This marks the first time in U.S. history that a commission of Tribal Nations—the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe—has worked with federal agencies to create a management plan for their off-reservation ancestral homelands within a 1.36-million-acre national monument.

“For the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Bears Ears holds profound cultural and spiritual significance,” Lehi said in a statement. “Our ancestors have cared for this land for centuries, and our traditions are deeply intertwined with its landscapes. Our Tribes lent centuries of invaluable knowledge to this resource plan to ensure that this landscape is here for generations to enjoy long after we are all gone.”

Q&A: 

Rebecca Nagle on Her New Book, "BY THE FIRE WE CARRY: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land”

Yahoo News


Rebecca Nagle (Photo/Brittany Bendabout)

By Jenna Kunze July 29, 2024

In 1999, Patrick Murphy killed George Jacobs in rural Oklahoma. Four years after Murphy was sentenced to death, his public defender unraveled a mystery: Had the murder occurred on the Muscogee reservation, guaranteed by treaty but which, according to the State of Oklahoma, no longer existed? Did Oklahoma have jurisdiction over the case? Over 20 years later, in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled: most of eastern Oklahoma is tribal land.

In her forthcoming book “BY THE FIRE WE CARRY: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land” (Harper; September 10, 2024), Cherokee journalist and reporter Rebecca Nagle tells the story of the long fight for tribal sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma.

Native News Online spoke with Nagle about her book, the many ways the McGirt decision has shaped her life and career, and why this Supreme Court decision is important history for all Indigenous people, no matter their tribe.


EDITOR'S NOTE: This interviewQ&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.

NNO: At the center of your book about the Supreme Court’s landmark McGirt decision is a question about tribal sovereignty. Can you make that connection clear for readers?

Nagle: I think it's really a story of what happens in U.S. democracy when tribes have a legal right that non-Native residents don’t want a tribe to have. When those rights run up against non-Native interests, we often see them under attack. That happens to tribes all the time, whether it's hunting and fishing rights, gaming rights, tobacco sales.

In this case, it was the reservation of Muscogee Nation, which was never disestablished. But Oklahoma, since its creation in 1907, had acted like that reservation no longer existed. That question went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court really followed the law. I think it's a story of what our democracy is capable of doing when it comes to Indigenous rights, even though it can be inconsistent.

NNO: You say in your acknowledgements that this book came from a piece of writing, which led to the podcast, which then became a piece of writing again. Can you talk about your journey with this story?

Nagle: I first learned about the case in the summer of 2017 from a Muscogee legal scholar named Sarah Deer. When the case was at the Tenth Circuit, she posted about it on Facebook, and I saw her Facebook post, and I started following it then. As I learned through my reporting, the case had actually already been around for about 15 years at that point.

I wrote a couple articles about it, and one of those articles got picked up by Crooked Media. They made a podcast about it, and then I had the fortune of writing a book.

NNO: How many years did you spend reporting this book?

Nagle: I started working on the book in a concerted way at the beginning of 2021, but I had been following the case and doing some research since 2017.

NNO: What are some key distinctions between your book and the podcast?

Nagle: There’s a lot more research that went into the book, and there’s a lot more space within a book to share that research. I think the background of the case, the story of the case and its origins, and also the history, the book goes a lot more into that.


Never miss Indian Country’s biggest stories and breaking news. Sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.

Enter your email





We spent very little time covering the original crime and the original trial, the murder of George Jacobs and Patrick Murphy being sentenced to death in the early, early stages of the case. I hadn't had a full sense of how much the original crime was a community tragedy. They were both from a really small, close knit community, and there are so many lives beyond the man who lost his life that were really, really impacted by the murder.

NNO: This book, like your podcast, includes both in-depth reporting on the murder and its proceedings, as well as personal anecdotes from your own family in order to tell the story of The Trail of Tears. When did it become clear that in order to write this book, you must include both?

Nagle: I think that there are limits to my perspective. I’m Cherokee, I’m not Muscogee. I pass as white, so I have a lot of privilege as an Indigenous person. In writing the book, I tried to strike a balance where I am both honest and upfront about my personal relationship to this case and how I see it from where I sit, and at the same time I really try to bring in other perspectives, including historical figures like the Naharkey family or Opothle Yoholo, or contemporary first language speakers. Even the people who are really directly impacted by the case.

NNO: Was there anything that particularly surprised you in your research?

Nagle: I spent a lot of time with primary source documents around the Ridges and their decision to sign Cherokee Nation’s removal treaty, the Treaty of New Echota. The main thing that I learned, that I knew, but I felt in a different way, was just how desperate they were for a solution to the crisis facing Cherokee Nation.

I don't necessarily think that they made the right decision, but I think that they made it for the right reason. It was the desire to try and preserve what could be preserved of the tribe at a time when the tribe was facing a really impossible situation. One of the themes of the book is Indigenous leaders grappling with the hard decisions that colonization can force our tribes and our leaders to make, and that those decisions aren't always clean or perfect or pure, but the totality of those decisions is what we have inherited as tribal citizens and as their descendants.

NNO: You write in the prologue that you wrote this book because you wanted the story of the historic Supreme Court decision to be well documented, and because it lived in your body and you wanted it to come out. Can you say more on that?

Nagle: I hope that the book is a service to tribal citizens and our community who know that this case was really important, and might know some underlying details, but don’t know the full 20+ year history of how this case came about.

I felt it was also important to document how the history is connected, and how a lot of these things repeat. For example, when it came to allotment, one of the big reasons that people said that allotment had to be necessary was because the lands of the Five Tribes were lawless and chaotic. You saw that exact same argument around the idea of affirming the reservations in 2020, and right after the reservations were affirmed. So those lies that are told about Indigenous Nations, and how they're repeated, was something I really wanted to document.

The last reason I give is that the story lives in my body, and selfishly, I wanted it to come out. Sometimes you also write things because you have to.

NNO: What inspired your title?

Nagle: I had been reading a lot of Joy Harjo’s poetry. That poem ‘Returning from the Enemy’ is a poem about going back to Muscogee homelands, and was one I had read over and over again. I just really liked that line:

‘I have returned to the homelands beloved by my people

Who were marched to the west

by the authority of a piece of paper.

I keep warm by the fire carried through cruelty.’

That metaphor is there throughout the book, this idea of generations of tribal citizens taking care of— literally— the fire, but also if you think about the fire symbolically as the fight for tribal sovereignty and Indigenous rights.

NNO: What is the future for this book? Where and when can readers buy it?

Nagle: The book is out on September 10, and there will be a book tour. We’ll be in Oklahoma, and have some stops on the east coast, as well as Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Seattle.

People can pre-order it anywhere they get their books, from the big bookstores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s, but also you can order from your favorite local bookstore or online at a place called bookshop.

NNO: What would you say to Native folks outside of Oklahoma about how this history might relate to them?

Nagle: I think that Indigenous experiences are universal. Obviously things like history and treaty rights are really tribally-specific. But I think we have a lot of similarities in the way that colonization has impacted us. This book takes a broader view on the role of both Indigenous resistance and colonization in US democracy, and what it means.

Arguably, President Joe Biden Has Been the Best President for Indian Country

President Joe Biden signs executive order at the White House Tribal Nations
Summit on December 7, 2023

. (Photo/Levi Rickert for Native News Online)

By Levi Rickert July 28, 2024

Opinion. My late mother who passed away last summer loved it when President Joe Biden would mention tribal nations whenever he referred to state and local governments in his speeches.

Mother said she didn’t remember other presidents mentioning Native Americans as much as President Biden did. 

I would smile and tell my mother President Biden cares about Indian Country. 

As the movement to have the president withdraw from the 2024 presidential race after his disastrous debate performance intensified, I was asked my opinion on the subject. My standard answer was that our Native American teachings tell us to respect our elders and it was his decision to make. 

When he ultimately made his decision last week to leave the race, I had some sadness about it because I know he has been the best president for Native Americans in history. 

Biden's commitment to Indian Country began with the release of his campaign’s 15-page Biden-Harris Plan for Tribal Nations, released during the 2020 presidential election. It compared to Trump's three-page plan called Putting America's First Peoples First - Forgotten No More! 

Often, politicians are full of talk. After elected, the Biden-Harris administration demonstrated it walked the talk. It is full of “firsts" when it comes to Indian Country.

In a historic move, in December 2019 Biden nominated then Rep. Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), who was then representing New Mexico’s 1st congressional district, to be the secretary of the Interior. When she was confirmed, she became the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet in a secretarial role. 

Late last month, at the grand opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center grand opening in New York, New York, President Biden reflected on his nomination of Haaland to his cabinet as being “one of the proudest appointments to this Cabinet I’ve ever made.”

The president did not stop with the appointment of Secretary Haaland. Within the federal government, there are dozens of Native Americans in key positions. Two notable Native American “firsts” to serve are: United States Treasurer Chief Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba (Mohegan Tribe), National Parks Service Director Charles F. “Chuck” Sams, III (Umatilla).

Biden has nominated over half of Native Americans to ever serve as federal judges. All have been women. Biden nominated Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby (Black and Native American) to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; Judge Lauren King (Muscogee Creek Nation) to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington; Judge Sunshine Sykes (Navajo) to the U.S.  District Court for the Central District of California, Sara Hill (Cherokee), and Danna Jackson (Kootenai) to the U.S.  District Court for the District of Montana.

During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, some $45 billion was invested in Indian Country. Allocating federal dollars is walking the talk; committing $45 billion is not mere political rhetoric. 

“That is above the annual budget throughout  all the federal through all the agencies for Indian Country. For perspective, the record amount of funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), it would take 15 years of BIA funding to equal $45 billion in Indian Country,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community) said at the RES 2024 conference in Las Vegas in March 2024. "That's money that went into all of our communities. And they see it when I go home to my community. And they tell us what that does for their communities."

Biden should get high praise for bringing back the annual White House Tribal Nations Summit that was held every year during the Obama-Biden administration, but did not occur at all when former Donald Trump occupied the White House. The annual summit provides every federally recognized tribe an opportunity to send a representative to Washington to meet with the high level officials of the administration, such as cabinet secretaries and directors of federal administrations, to discuss matters that are important to their tribes. 

“We’ve made progress, but we know Indigenous communities still live in the shadows of the failed policies of the past. That’s why — that’s why I committed to working with you to write a new and better chapter in American history for Indian nations,” Biden said at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit.

Perhaps, the biggest prize from the summit was Biden’s executive order to expand tribal self-determination across the 574 federally recognized tribes. The order aims to make it easier for Native Americans to access federal funding and have greater autonomy over how to use the federal funds.

Non-Natives–and even many Native Americans–may be completely oblivious to how much Biden has done for Indian Country. No one person can correct the 240-plus years of mistreatment of Native Americans in four short years, but President Joe Biden’s attempt should be recognized and respected.

Biden has led this nation at a perilous time. He inherited a mishandled pandemic that left over a million of Americans dead and faced two international crises in Ukraine and the Middle East. Yet, he still remained committed to fulfilling promises he made during his campaign to Indian Country.

President Joe Biden is a good and decent man. His contributions will be remembered for a long time in Indian Country.

Indian Country can hope that the precedent President Biden has set will carry forward to future administrations. Indian Country deserves to have a cabinet member in all future presidential administrations and more Native Americans nominated to be federal judges. We know representation matters.

And yes, I too appreciate it when Biden mentions Indian Country in his speeches, as did my mother. 

Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.

A Tremendous Step toward Dakota Visibility in Minneapolis

• Tribal Sovereignty
 
• Yahoo News

(Photo/Courtesy)

By Shelley Buck (Tinta Wita Dakota) 

 

July 29, 2024

Guest Opinion.  For generations, our Dakota ancestors traveled to Owámniyomni, a sacred place where the raging waters of Ȟaȟa Wakpá (the Mississippi River) cascaded over a 50-foot limestone drop in what is now the heart of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. They came to this site where the physical and spiritual worlds blend for ceremony and to connect with our creator and natural relatives. Dakota women also journeyed to nearby Wíta Wanáǧi (Spirit Island), an island in the mist kicked up from the falling water, to give birth.

Over the course of more than 200 years, colonization and industrialization sought to destroy the Dakota peoples’ connection at Owámniyomni. Industrialists saw the river as a resource to be extracted. Our Native history and voices were rendered invisible. And the millions of people who visit this area each year have no awareness of its sacred history.

But on June 25, we entered a new period of healing. At a Victory Celebration alongside the river, we marked a major milestone in restoring Dakota voices, visibility and culture at Owámniyomni.

This spring, the Dakota-led nonprofit Owámniyomni Okhódayapi signed a 25-year lease with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giving it site control of five acres of land adjacent to the river. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi – in partnership with Minnesota’s four Dakota tribes – is beginning to reclaim our cultural connection to this land. We are creating opportunities for Dakota, Native and non-Native people to learn the rich history and significance of this site, long before white settlers renamed it St. Anthony Falls and built the “Mill City.” And we are setting the stage for ecological restoration that will welcome our plant and animal relatives back to this place.

Fighting for Dakota visibility is not an easy journey. It’s filled with a mix of small wins and large setbacks. But this lease and our corresponding celebration are wins that fill me with hope. Seeing Dakota people dancing and counting coup on this sacred site was a powerful moment. It proved that our connection to this land and water can be reclaimed, and how with persistence, Dakota people can finally be seen in our homelands again.

The journey is far from over. Our next major milestone is to fully transfer control of these five acres back to Minnesota’s Dakota tribes, with Owámniyomni Okhódayapi serving as the initial owner and caretaker. In the meantime, we’re developing a site concept and programming that encourages people to use the site in traditional Dakota ways, restores our direct connection to the river and provides an opportunity for healing.

It’s been an honor of mine to serve as the president of Owámniyomni Okhódayapi for the past 18 months and guide our transformation into a Dakota-led nonprofit working to embed a Dakota worldview back into the Minneapolis riverfront and beyond. When I look at the practices our staff and board have embraced, I know we’re living a model that can inspire future work across Indian Country.

Our organization is demonstrating the unique and transformative power of Native-led nonprofits grounded in traditional values and processes. We’re showing what’s feasible when you lift up Native leaders and honor the wisdom and history carried by our knowledge keepers. So often, agencies don’t even think of tribal nations as partners. But step by step, we’re changing that.

It’s my hope that one year from now we will gather again for a Victory Celebration at Owámniyomni, this time to mark the full transfer of land back to the Dakota people. After 200 years, it’s more than time to restore our connection to this land, to help it flourish and to visibly declare this place as Dakota homeland.

Shelley Buck is president of Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, a nonprofit transforming the land adjacent to Owámniyomni, a place of deep cultural and spiritual significance on the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis. She is an enrolled member of the Prairie Island Indian Community and former tribal president.

Tahiti’s waves are a matter of ‘life and death’ for Olympic surfers

By Jordan-Marie Smith
Published July 29, 2024 

NPR

Ben Thouard POOL AFP

Yolanda Hopkins, of Portugal, wipes out during the second round of the 2024 Summer Olympics surfing competition Sunday.

NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. For more of our coverage from the games head to our latest updates.

Portugal's Yolanda Hopkins judges the moment and starts paddling as the aqua behemoth surges from behind and begins to curl into the classic barrel shape. It's looking good for the Paris Olympics competitor, until suddenly she is swallowed in a blast of white spray, disappearing under the water.

This is the second Olympics to feature surfing — with Hopkins and others beginning on the weekend — but it’s the first time competitors are riding waves that are a matter of “life or death,” according to professional big wave surfer Garrett McNamara.

This year, surfers will be competing at Teahupo’o — part of the French Polynesian island of Tahiti that’s more than 9,000 miles from Paris.

Teahupo’o can experience 40-50 foot waves, but it’s not just the size that makes the challenge unique — it’s also the large, shallow reef.

“It's one of the most beautiful and dangerous waves in the world,” McNamara told NPR. “It is just life or death from start to finish, big or small. The razor-sharp coral reef is just inches below you when you fall.”

“It’s not like other waves. Usually, you can see these giant swells on the horizon. At Teahupo'o … the whole ocean moves forward. You don't see lines coming.”

“Once [the waves] get close to the reef, the whole bottom drops out. And the water that's on the reef in front of you sucks off the reef somewhat like a waterfall and goes down below sea level. And then the wave curls over and the lip of the wave basically detonates on [the] reef.”

Gregory Bull / AP

Filipe Toledo, of Brazil, surfs during the second round of the 2024 Summer Olympics surfing competition on Sunday.

McNamara said surfers need to judge the incoming waves, get into the barrel quickly, exit before it breaks on the reef and then quickly dodge the incoming wave.

“I've had so many horrendous wipeouts there. It's not even funny,” he said.

Still, it’s exactly these conditions that lures some surfers.

“When it’s getting big, it’s the heaviest wave in the world for me and the most perfect wave in the world,” Tahiti's Kauli Vaast told Olympics.com. “You have to be very focused because if you fall, you can hit the reef and that’s the danger. That’s why Teahupo'o is dangerous, so you have to be smart, calm and focused."

For Olympic surfer Sol Aguirre, being able to ride Tahiti’s waves means more than just a medal.

“It is a super special, incredible, super intense wave and it fills you with many emotions at the same time,” Aguirre told Olympics.com. “It is something that brings out the best in you and makes you grow as a person.”

Ben Thouard / Pool AFP

France's Joan Duru rides in a barrel in Teahupo'o, skimming feet above the ocean floor.

So far, the waves haven’t caused real issues for surfers in the opening days of competition.

The waves slowly built on day one, and then were smaller and had fewer barrels on day two, according to Associated Press, which reported that the conditions favored some surfers who were less experienced on the typically larger waves of Teahupo’o.

The decision to host the surfing feats in Tahiti was entirely purposeful. The Olympic committee said it wanted to highlight French territories worldwide, not just the country itself.

Teahupo’o itself has a storied history in the surfing world. It’s hosted the Pro Tahiti championship event for at least 20 years and will host the World Surf Championship Tour after the Olympic Games.

The island’s surfing history goes back to when Tahitian warriors took up surfing to train for battle. People in other Polynesian communities expressed it as an art form.

The surfing finals in the Olympics are scheduled for Tuesday evening, Eastern Time.

Copyright 2024 NPR